FARGO — For the better part of two periods Thursday night, a palpable energy hung around Scheels Arena for the NCAA men's hockey Fargo Regional semifinal between the Gophers and Canisius.
This isn't gonna be Holy Cross again, is it?
Seventeen years earlier and 80 miles up Interstate 29 in Grand Forks, the Gophers, the No. 2 overall tournament seed, fell to Holy Cross in overtime in one of the biggest upsets in college hockey history.
Thursday, Aaron Huglen and Connor Kurth made sure history didn't repeat, and the Gophers – especially Bryce Brodzinski — emphatically poured it on in the third period.
Huglen tied the score, and Kurth put Minnesota ahead for good late in the second period as the Gophers, this time the No. 1 overall NCAA seed, defeated the Golden Griffins 9-2 in front of a sellout crowd of 5,061. Minnesota scored two power-play goals early in the third on a major penalty by No. 16 seed Canisius. And Brodzinski had a third-period hat trick as the Gophers scored six goals in the final period.
"That's gotta be the closest 9-2 game I've ever seen,'' Gophers coach Bob Motzko said. "… We stuck to our game plan and kept getting pucks deep. We had to grind tonight.''
The Gophers could exhale because they advanced to Saturday's 5:30 p.m. regional final against St. Cloud State, a 4-0 semifinal winner over Minnesota State Mankato. The Gophers and Huskies, who split a series in January, will play for a trip to the Frozen Four on April 6 and 8 in Tampa, Fla.
Kurth and Brody Lamb each had a goal and an assist, and Logan Cooley had three assists for the Gophers (27-9-1). Luke Mittelstadt, Jimmy Snuggerud and Mason Nevers also scored for Minnesota, while Justen Close made 19 saves.